California has an extremely dry climate, which leads to wildfires in its forested and chaparral-covered areas. These occur throughout the year, with a peak in July. However, due to various factors, there are significant spatial variations in the occurrence of fires. Therefore, there are areas where fires are frequent and areas where they are practically absent. In my thesis, I examined how the occurrence of fires has varied over the period 2000-2020 and tried to explain the causes. I found that the number of fires per year has remained more or less stable over the period, while on the other hand fires are becoming more widespread and destructive. This is largely due to global warming, but also to the spread of population into fire-prone areas.
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